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Thursday, February 21, 2008

Where Have All the Jays Gone?

SOLD
16 1/2" x 24"

It is the 1 year anniversary since my quilt, Jay Walk, has gone missing. Missdelivered by the United States Postal Service, neither the company that signed for it, nor the USPS knows where it went. The USPS did pay my insurance claim eventually, but it does not begin to replace the loss I feel over my very special quilt being gone. Though I will always remain hopeful that it will find it's way back to me, it is time to move on. I made this little quilt to commemorate its loss.

New stuff: I took the pink shibori fabric from the earlier post (More Distractions) to use for the petals. However, the pink and white just didn't look quite right. So, I colored in the white thread resist markings with Tsukneko inks, yellow and orange. I really like the way that turned out.
The leaf fabric was made using pole wrap shibori. Though less obvious in this photo, I used light colored lime green thread to quilt the upper part of the leaves and a darker olive green to quilt the lower part of the leaves. It makes it look like two slightly different fabrics. What a difference quilting can make! Okay, it's a bit subtle in the photo, but in real life it looks quite lovely.
I made a big effort to make the background quilting more meaningful. In the top half, I quilted seven big circles. These represent the seven missing jays from Jay Walk. And in the bottom half of the quilt, I used a square stipple design to represent the buildings that make up the back ground in Jay Walk. In the sky I quilted words to go with the sentiment, and to help them pop forward just a bit more, I colored them with a very dilute white Tsukneko ink.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Auction Quilt Completed!

The quilt and pillow sham are reversible. The back is a whole cloth batik. Connie Hudson quilted it with a variegated thread in a beautiful spiral pattern on her longarm machine. It was a perfect design for the front and the back! I am hoping it will raise some money for my kids' school.

Friday, February 15, 2008

Home at Last!

My quilt, Visions of Grandeur, has been traveling for 2 years in the Fine Focus '06 exhibit. I felt very honored to have my quilt included in this incredible collection of small art quilts. You can see and read about the other quilts in this exhibit by going to,http://www.finefocus.blogspot.com/.

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

More Distractions
The first is a shibori experiment. I love the bright pink! This sample is made by pinching the fabric as I hand sewed big running stitches. Pull the strings tight and then vat dyed.

This yellow was posted earlier. It was made by dipping a napkin holder in wax, and then dye painted.

After boiling out the wax, I restamped it with an interesting irrigation cap end that I found at Home Depot. The waxed parts saved the yellow, then I dyed it again with orange. It looked fabulous, but I took it one step further.

I tore off a section, and without boiling the wax out yet, I painted the center of the circles (to save the orange), and stamped again with the irrigation cap (to save more orange). Then I dyed it again with red. The red dye was too old, and most of it rinsed out, but the resulted dark orange was just so lovely! I can't decide which I like better, the yellow & orange piece, or the yellow & orange & reddish???

Tuesday, February 05, 2008

Dyeing Experiments 101

I needed a dark backdrop for a quilt, so I decided to make it navy. However, I didn't want a solid navy, I wanted something subtle with a little interest in it. Okay, I totally missed 'subtle' with this experiment! I folded this cloth in half and then twisted it very tight, stuck the ends through the loop made in the other end, and then vat dyed. I did not expect such high contrast, but I loved it. Then the dilemma, though beautiful and very interesting, it wouldn't fit my needs. So, I took it to the garage and started batiking circles. Some I left as rings, others I filled in. Then I over dyed it, navy and turquoise.

I liked the new results even better! Someday I will get around to quilting this as a whole cloth. It is large, about 60" x 120". Of course, I will have to find a back for it....which will lead to more dyeing experiments, more fun, and more learning!